


Innverse Alternate "Lucky": Doctor Swap Version

by jennannkane



Series: Alternate Innverse Series [1]
Category: The Wandering Inn - pirateaba
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-19 09:13:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22975411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jennannkane/pseuds/jennannkane
Summary: Erin’s in the jungles of Balaros and Geneva’s outside of Liscor. AU Oneshot.
Series: Alternate Innverse Series [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1651678
Comments: 5
Kudos: 27
Collections: Alternate Innverses





	Innverse Alternate "Lucky": Doctor Swap Version

**Author's Note:**

> The Wandering Inn belongs to Pirateaba. Please see her excellent web serial at https://wanderinginn.com/ if you haven't done so already!

Erin walked into a city built onto the side of a lake. She stared up at the tall buildings, the interconnected bridges made with planks and vines that ran overhead like something out of Indiana Jones, and especially at the walking Lizardpeople and the Centaurs that walked around next to Humans like her.

After a few minutes of person watching, Erin continued to walk into the small city. She wasn’t actually a traveler, not really anyway. She hadn’t intended to travel anywhere tonight. She frowned as she rubbed the sweat on her face and walked along with the crowd. She had been going to the bathroom and…she must have taken a wrong step somewhere.

An extremely big wrong step, because instead of walking into her bathroom she’s suddenly found herself in a jungle, nose-to-nose with a gigantic snake.

She had run away. She couldn’t be dreaming - the heat was too hot, the mosquitoes had definitely bitten her and she had tripped at least twice over protruding jungle tree roots and had scraped up her hands. But how was she here, in another world?

It had to be another world considering the Centaurs and Lizardpeople running around everywhere. That much was a logical conclusion and she was slightly comforted by the fact that there were humans around, even if they were all dressed in various types of armor and carried around swords, shields, and crossbows.

There was nothing familiar in this other world to her own. The trees were too big, the bugs were too big, the snakes were too big, and there were races right out of a knockoff World of Warcraft game mingling around together in a mishmash of unfamiliarity.

At least that seemed to be the case until she spotted one of the Lizardpeople carrying a chessboard and case of chess pieces down the street. He had red and yellow patterned scales with an orange frill around his neck and trailing down to his long tail.

She lost all her inhibitions and immediately made her way over to follow the Lizardperson. “Hello, excuse me! Is that really a chessboard? Do you play chess?”

The Lizardperson didn’t stop but did turn his head to her and gave her a grin full of sharp teeth that seemed friendly, “Of course! It’s popular right now everywhere - even on different continents I’ve heard. I’ve already been playing for over two months so I think I’ll do well today. Are you here for our little tournament today, Miss Human?”

“A chess tournament? Here?” Erin asked, completely astonished before smiling widely in relief and finding something familiar to her. “I’d love to play, I love chess. I‘m Erin Solstice, what’s your name?”

The Lizardperson chatted enthusiastically as they walked together. “I’m Xomass Caxical, this tournament is the biggest one this area’s had ever. The Titan isn’t likely to be here himself but I’ve heard that many high level [Tactitions] and [Strategists] will be playing today. I’m a [Merchant] myself but my niece is a [Tactician] and has given me a few tips. Are you a [Tactician] like she is?”

“Me? No, nothing like that.” Erin said with a shake of her head. “I just really love chess.”

By the time Erin had replied to Xomass they had arrived at a building that had many people belonging to several different races milling about - several were carrying their own chess boards. Erin joined up with those gathered and tried not to be obvious as she looked around spotting a very tall man in shining steel armor carrying his own head in the crook of his arm, an even larger centaur with black fur with speckles of white and graying brown hair in leather armor, a very cute  _ foxman _ who had brownish-red fur with a white muzzle and point at the end of his tail, and a  _ snakeman _ who was ruby red and silver who wore lots of shining gems and jewelry.

Erin had to rub her stinging hand to remind herself that as bizarre as it seemed, this was somehow her reality right now. She wasn’t insane - this world was just too bizarre to have sprung out of her own mind somehow.

The players were escorted into the room where a smiling man in rich looking clothes stood on a dais in front of the crowd. “Welcome everyone. My name is Anglion Lariot and I’m the one who has organized this first-ever Elimination Style Chess Tournament for your region. Just as the message I relayed to the mages has said, the entrance fee is one gold coin or equal collateral and the Grand prize will be your choice between either 5000 gold or a matched set of five enchanted rings and the runner up will receive either 1000 gold or a single enchanted ring of your choice! The registration will be open for the next two hours so please take this time to register yourselves before we close entry. Once you register please promptly pass through the arch and wait for further instructions. Observers of the tournament will be one level above looking down from interior balconies.”

Erin’s face fell in disappointment. Of course there would be an entrance fee for a tournament. Did she have anything that was considered to be collateral to whatever one gold coin was worth in this new world? Just in case she had missed anything she felt at her pockets, hoping for something. 

She had…two empty pockets. Just great. This was the last time she would go anywhere without her smartphone, even if it was just to go to the bathroom.

But still. It was chess - even if she didn’t have any money she’d be happy just to watch people play. Who knew what kind of awesome chess strategies an entirely new world would have? So even though she was disappointed she smiled with great enthusiasm and turned to the only person she had spoken within this world so far. 

“Good luck in the tournament. Xomass. I would’ve loved to play but I don’t have any money or collateral, just getting to watch everyone play will be fun though.”

The ruby red and silver snakeman apparently was close enough to hear her and with a somewhat overly dramatic gasp, he said, “Oh, what’s this I hear, human girl? You don’t have enough money or collateral to enter this tournament? That's really a shame. I’m Xerxiss Hexia, leader of the Scarlet Scales Company. I’ll play an unofficial game with you and if you win I’ll pay you a gold coin but if I win you join up with my company for a month. Do we have a deal?”

Erin smiled brightly and not seeing the slightly alarmed expression cross Xomass’s face said, “That is so generous - thank you so much. I accept.”

Erin shook Xerxiss’ hand and followed him over to a table where a white Lizardperson with teal markings and light blue frills began to set up a chessboard, not noticing Xomass watching her from across the room even as he registered himself for the tournament. 

Soon Erin was seated on the white side and with a smile, she picked up a knight and as she placed it quietly whispered.

“Knight to F3.” 

Xerxiss placed a Pawn at D5 and the game continued. Then she noticed something unusual - within five moves she began wondering what type of game the snakeman was playing. He seemed to be giving her a very easy game and by the sixteenth turn, she knew she would checkmate him within six turns. It was only when she checkmated him on the 22nd turn and she received the shiny gold coin that she figured out what he had intended. 

He had been going easy on her so she could get enough money to register for the tournament! How nice of him!

He was stoic when he handed her the money and so with a smile, she said, “I really appreciate your help and look forward to the tournament! Don't go easy on me next time though or this won't be fun.”

Erin didn't notice Xomass seemed to be relieved to see her pass into the room the tournament would be located but he greeted her with a smile, "Erin Solstice. Confidence in your abilities is one thing but try not to take too many risks in the future. Xerxiss Hexia must at least be a Level 25 [Tactition] and he hasn't even been trained by the Titan."

"He wasn't so bad, he's pretty nice and went easy on me so I would be able to register for the Tournament," Erin said with a carefree smile as she looked around at everyone gathered together in excitement. Today was on an entirely new level of strange but at least there was chess and that settled her more than anything else could have.

One afternoon of an elimination-style chess tournament later and Erin was facing the living headless knight in the final round of the tournament. She wasn't sure what she had expected aside from having a fun time playing chess, but she hadn't expected to have such an easy time. 

She remembered that this was a regional tournament though and that helped her realize the level of the opponents she was playing against at least. She had gone through similar tournaments just in the last year by playing in local leagues filled with retirees and hobbyists who mostly played for fun.

She had learned a few new cultural types as well, thanks to playing chess with this varied crowd. The Lizardfolk (and snakefolk) were cheery and chatty and liked to give compliments to each other freely. The living headless knights were calm and stoic and were much less animated. The centaurs were blunt and straightforward, nearly to the point of rudeness and seemed very proud.

Erin, once she won the tournament decided to take the prize money instead of the enchanted rings, which conveniently came with an enchanted bag of holding and left to find somewhere to stay and get something to eat. She was in a fantasy world - so she decided that she would look for an inn to stay in.

That night she didn’t hear a voice in her head because the only active choice she had made that day was to play some chess. She didn’t know how lucky she was.

* * *

A Few Weeks Later - Outside of Liscor

An old inn sat on a hill several miles away from Liscor - except it wasn’t just an Inn anymore. A sign just outside the door read ‘Hilltop Clinic - No Goblins Allowed’ and the sign on the door was switched from closed to open.

Geneva had only stepped outside the lecture hall of her class for a moment before running face to face with...what was probably a dragon. She had been chased by horrible little green goblins until she had reached the abandoned inn on a hill. Once she had treated the scratches on her legs and the burn on her arm before falling asleep in a pile of dust, a voice in her head had happily announced her new class as a [Doctor].

After a day of cleaning up the ground floor and gathering fresh water from a stream and nearly getting eaten by a giant boulder hermit crab she had had the dubious fortune to have run into a pair of guardsmen who had been patrolling outside the city for giant spiders. Their names were Relc and Klbkch and they had formed something of a habit of coming to visit her at her new clinic every other day or so.

She only lived at the Inn-turned-Clinic for one reason - she couldn’t afford to move into the city of Liscor. She accepted donations for medical treatment but didn’t require it and so even though it was a few miles outside the city the place was slowly becoming more popular to the guardsmen and guardswomen of Liscor for affordable healthcare when they didn’t want to waste a potion.

Relc was watching Geneva set and wrap the sprained wrist of one of his subordinates and said “I don’t get it - I’ve taken a hit ten times harder than this guy and didn’t get a dent. How’d he get injured so bad?”

As Geneva tightened the splint to stabilize the other guardsman’s wrist she said, “Because falling injuries are ridiculous, Relc. There are people who’ve survived falling from cliffs 2000 feet high and there are people who’ve died falling out of bed.”

“Weird. This is boring though, isn’t there anything else I can do around here?” Relc asked gruffly.

“There’s hot soup in the kitchen as long as you don’t eat all of it,” Geneva said and Relc let out an excited whoop before heading back to help himself to the food.

Less than a minute later the door to the clinic burst open revealing the human-sized ant-like Klbkch (who still freaked Geneva out a little bit) who had the Illusionist Mage Pisces under escort for his community service detail working under Geneva in exchange for his eventual release from the Liscor prison.

“Greetings Miss Geneva. Relc. I won’t disturb you for long and will stand watch outside the clinic while the Prisoner Pisces continues his service to you.” Klbkch said with an air of politeness as always.

“Thank you,” Geneva said, looking at Pisces instead of Klbkch since she was still not quite able to look directly at Klbkch without a crawly tingling feeling shudder across her skin. 

Once he left he focused entirely on her punitive assistant she said, “Pisces - go ahead and sterilize more bandages and my tools and then I’ll have you work on breaking down more Amentus fruit cores to a dilution of 1000 parts clean water to one part core oil.”

Pisces rolled his eyes dramatically and said, “Would it not be simpler to just have me executed instead of this convoluted attempt to have me kill myself?”

“Just use the equipment and you’ll be fine - that oil is toxic if it’s ingested but it does make an excellent antibacterial cleaner when it’s diluted. You have to admit this is better than being exiled for being a  _ thief _ isn’t it?”

“Very well. Once again I am doing this under  _ extreme _ protest.” Pisces said with a haughty sniff as he walked over to where a pot full of knives, spoons, and bandages were sitting next to a cauldron full of boiling water and diluted cleaning solution were ready for him to prepare.

Geneva returned her attention to her patient and said, “Alright Tkrn. Since I used my skill your wrist should be back to normal by the next hour or so. Please return the bandages to the recycling crate and either Relc or Klbkch will bring it next time they come by.“

“Thank you, Geneva.” The Junior Guardsman Gnoll said with a very toothy smile. “I’m sure a lot more people would come to see you if you moved your clinic into Liscor, you know.”

“Unfortunately it’s still too expensive, but I am definitely still interested in moving when I can afford it. Tell your Aunt I said hello and that I’ll be coming to town again at the end of the week to stock up on supplies again.”

“Alright, goodbye Geneva,” Tkrn said and left the Hill Clinic, dropping ten silver coins into Geneva’s donation box before leaving. Ten silver was till five times less than a regular health potion and worth it even if it was miles out of the way to visit the clinic.

Geneva had a tough time living so far out of the city but she had company and was relatively safe aside from randomly attacking goblins. She didn’t know how lucky she was.


End file.
